Goodbye, Goodbye
by The Corpse of One Legato
Summary: Saying goodbye is never easy. A young Irken struggles with her feelings as she must leave Earth and Zim to return to Irk, and the tallests won't even tell her why. DeadLegato's last entry to fanfiction.net


=This is a farewell message from the author formerly known as DeadLegato. I have left fanfiction.net, perhaps permanently. I may return on another name, but because of circumstances surrounding my departure, only very clever people or people closely associated with me will know that it IS me under a new name. I am writing and uploading this on the computer of my friend Rainbound_Angel. I can only hope her IP address isn't blocked because of my actions.  
  
Those of you wishing to finish Original, Little Shop of Horrors and Zim, and/or Barometer Rising, I have moved to fandomination.net (Name: Shandy_Evians, just look in the Zim section) and to my own webpage, http://www.angelfire.com/anime/casperslasher , the stories will be up there once I find where my backups are.  
  
I hope you're happy. You may think you've won, but you haven't.  
  
I will overcome. =  
  
  
  
A bitter rain had begun to blow, but the young Irken didn't mind the sting of the rain against her partially paste-covered skin. She liked to think she was good at things, but the paste was just one more example of how her judgment about herself was often wrong. She shivered underneath the gray men's trench coat she'd picked up for wearing on Earth. The cold seemed to grind right through and touch her bones.  
  
Many other Irkens would have thought it odd to see her on top of the hill, out of her disguise, her hands stretched to the sky as her long antennae whipped back and forth to the rain. Tears dripped down her face, matching the rain in their pace and ferocity. She fell to her knees, trying to choke back the agony. No, she must not show emotions. There was something more important for her to do first. Rising slowly against the wind, she flipped on her disguise and walked slowly towards the brilliant lights of the city below.  
  
It was time to say goodbye.  
  
She paused in front of Dib's house. What an odd little man he'd been. Sometimes he almost reminded her of her own awkward you. Perhaps that's why I don't like him, she mused with a slight half-smile on her face. Gaz. Gaz would have been cooler to hang out with if she'd like arcade-style games a much as she liked her Game Slave.  
  
The Irken continued down the street, her hands hanging limply by her sides. Zita, the Letter M, Aki. she knew them all by name, even if they'd only treated her like crud. Even if they hadn't listened to her, even if they'd hated everything she'd done, she still felt connected to them. They had been her community. They'd been her lifeline.  
  
Zim's house was dark, but she knew she'd find him awake. It seemed that Zim never slept, whereas she slept too much. Way, way too much she thought with a slight shake of her antennae. She stepped up to the door, verifying her identity and simply walking through the holograph. As depressed about her circumstances as she was, she was in no mood to even keep up the pretenses of being human any longer.  
  
Zim glared at her when he saw her hovering silently in the elevator lobby. "How long have you been standing there?" he asked.  
  
"I've seen everything," she replied coldly, stepping forward and letting the low light of Zim's machinery highlight her face. Her cold purple eyes lacked any sign of the emotional storm raging within.  
  
"Yes, yes, yes. Well, you should."  
  
"I'm leaving, Zim. Not just leaving your base, leaving Earth."  
  
"Leaving? Oh? Not that I particularly care, but for how long?"  
  
She almost smiled. "Not that anyone cares. I wasn't a loved person, even when I was here. You didn't even really like me, Zim, be honest about it." She sadly shook her antennae. "No, I'm leaving permanently Zim. I won't be back."  
  
He paused. "Why not?" he asked in a rather childish tone. She wanted to reach out and pat his head, but she valued keeping all her fingers.  
  
"I don't know. The tallest simply told me to come back to Irk. They're not going to let me come back. Zim. they've won. My enemies have won. The very thing I came here to fight against is the type that keeps multiplying beyond my control. There's so many that they clog my system when I try to run diagnostic. Face it, Zim. They beat me."  
  
"You're disgusting," Zim said, turning away from her teary-eyed gaze. "When you came here you were out to prove to the Irken home world that you were worth something, that your ideas had value. You didn't simply come here to fight a war, which is what you ended up doing. Perhaps it is time for you to step back, and reevaluate your life. Then, and only then, can you return. Even if you have to do it right under the tallests antennae, without their permission."  
  
"I'd have to change, Zim, or they'd find me. I'd have to change so much that not even you or Dib would know me, no one that I once had a connection too would find me. I don't want that, Zim! I don't want to leave Earth!" she shrieked, slamming her fist against the wall hard enough to cause a cracking noise to emanate from within. Zim winced slightly, but she continued to merely stare at her hand.  
  
"Perhaps. I did it once, Zim. I made my connections, I created my human personality, I built a false family and network of associates. I had all their phone numbers stored in my phone, even though I knew none of them would ever call me or let them call me. Somehow, I think I may have even loved them. Even when they hated me. But I can do it again. I can start over with a clean slate. I won't have changed, I CAN do it again."  
  
Zim gave her a thumbs-up, Irken style. "I'll be seeing you, I guess."  
  
She nodded, giving him a broad smile. "Goodbye, Invader Zim," she replied.  
  
A brilliant blue-white light cut out of the sky, catching her. Her body became transparent, her features nothing more than a matrix of tiny sparks of light. "Remember me." she whispered as she faded into nothing.  
  
Zim stared at the ground. The coat hadn't managed to make the teleporter leap back to Earth with her. Slowly, he picked it up and turned it over. It still smelled like her, leaving behind a wafting ghost of a presence. It was almost like some remnant of her remained, forgotten and trapped in time.  
  
Zim gave the coat to GIR the next day, and no trace that Legato the Irken had ever existed remained. 


End file.
